Clowning Around Rule

IRL cockroach@lemmy.world to 196@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 396 points –
20

I remember hearing a theory that it could have been intended as a viral marketing campaign for the remake of It. Once it started getting bad press, they gave up on the idea, but copycats kept copycatting.

No idea if there's any truth to any of that, but it seems plausible.

Supposedly it was for the film "Gags" which was shot in Green Bay.

There were tons of copycats. My buddy was out for an evening walk and one followed him around in Houston.

The worst was when we had an evil clown show up in the White House. I think it was one of the first, sometime in January.

It sure did stop quickly once someone dressed as a creepy clown got shot, iirc.

Good. Someone I know showed me one of those "creepy clown prank" videos recently, and like... that shit ain't a prank.

I consider myself a pacifist, but if someone's gonna get shot, I hope it's those guys.

I think the worst part of it was that they were showing up near grade schools and playgrounds.

2020/2021/2022 were so bad we all forgot about 2016. The clowns, trump being elected, Harambe. It was considered a wild year back then.

This incident is the reason ronald mcdonald is no longer used as a mascot for mcdonalds, granted he was definitely being used less and less.

RIP ronald, you were always pretty fucking weird looking, but i never thought you would murder me.

God takes who heavens deserves most :((((

Worst part about McDonald's to be fair

OK, but what the hell was it actually?

Wikipedia page has some explanation.

There's also this gem:

In October 2016, McDonald's decided that Ronald McDonald would keep a lower profile as a result of the incidents.

That said, a 16 year old was killed in relation to these incidents, so not completely fun and games.

Not sure for other countries, but in mine it was just peoples disguising in clown for fun or doing prank on youtube, no real harmful acts.

It was what every cultural thing seems to be turning into: internet pranks/memes. Someone saw someone do it, did it themselves, when more people did it, more people did it. Simplest explanation is always the most likely.